Do not call The King's Speech a period piece -- at least not around its star Colin Firth. And this is a guy who knows a thing or two about labels -- an actor who has long since shed the baggage of being the fantasy of every adolescent girl who ever saw Pride and Prejudice. As Firth mentions, he's quite happy he's at an age (he just turned 50) where it's his work as an actor that's being judged -- judgment that paid off with his first Oscar nomination last year for A Single Man and what will surely be his second nomination this year for The King's Speech.
This year actor returns to the awards-season spotlight as George VI, the English king desperate to overcome a severe speech impediment before addressing his subjects in the early days of World War II. Movieline spoke with Firth about resisting period trappings, the chemistry he shared with the king's on-screen speech therapist (played by Geoffrey Rush), living a year of his childhood in the United States and why, just maybe, it isn't the worst thing in the world to be labeled a heartthrob.
The opening scene of The King's Speech, the address to Wembley Stadium, is hard to watch.
It's like an anxiety dream. I don't know if people who aren't actors have that dream -- that thing where you go out there and no words come. I remember having dreams as a kid, which I think are common, where the monster is after you but you can't scream or you can't run. And I guess if you were that guy, George VI, it wasn't a dream. Public speaking is bizarre. I don't know whether to call it irrational or not -- and I'm talking about people who don't stammer. It's a mortal terror. I've heard this second-hand, but I think Jerry Seinfeld had said that research showed that fear of public speaking was second only to fear of dying.
I think it is actually above dying.
Above it, yes. Right. Do you remember what he said? At the funeral most people would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy.
One thing that struck me about The King's Speech is how it doesn't feel at all like a traditional English period piece.
It's interesting, this idea of a period piece. I mean, you can't get away from it being English, but it's funny how -- just because I've done so many different things in different periods -- I don't really ever think of that very much. And [director] Tom Hooper doesn't have anything that we normally think of as a period film feel about him. I even read something that had been written about the film as if it was to do with elegance -- it couldn't be further from that. This isn't a shrill protest against anything; believe me, we're getting so much love for this film. But it is interesting that it's easy to define it in those terms, when, actually, if you look at the film, it really isn't.
So do you think that people who love "English period pieces" are still finding what the want with this film?
Maybe they do. And maybe the people who don't like it still see it that way. I don't know. All I know is that I think most people have had your reaction. It's very, very gratifying.
It helps that there's someone in the movie who is still very much alive.
And how far back does it need to go for it to be a period piece? I mean, my mother didn't like it when I referred to a Terrence Rattigan play that I was doing as a period piece. It was set and written in 1952; that's part of my mother's life -- which is not the beginning. She was getting into her teens by then. You know, I'm doing a spy thriller at the moment which is set in 1973. It's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, about the Cold War. I remember it being out as a book; I was about 14 at the time. I remember it being on TV as a series and it was contemporary, up-to-date and cutting edge. Now, I remember sitting with the guys on the set the other day saying, "Are we doing a period piece?"
As someone who was born in the '70s, I don't like hearing anything from that decade called "a period piece."
That's my thing. So that, for me, is what would be your '80s. Are the '80s a period piece? So, 1937, my mom I think was born that year, actually, and that's when this is largely set. It's not that long ago. I was born about 15 years after the end of World War II and it still feels like ancient history, in black and white. And I think 15 years back now is nothing. This is Prince Charles's granddad that I'm playing. It's the Queen's dad. So it's not ancient history. It's not a parallel universe. I think people are extremely surprised to laugh as heartily as they do for something that they think is a period movie.
I've never laughed more at someone saying the word "f*ck" over and over again as you did in the film.
Well, it highlights the forbiddenness of those words -- the fact that this isn't a guy who would usually go around saying those words. And the fact that they're not vicious, and the fact that they're not sexual in the context, and the fact they're not casual means that actually they have a wonderful liberating and comic power because they're exceptional here.
And I wasn't expecting to hear that word in this movie.
It's forbidden! It's completely forbidden. And, actually, the laugh at the end, because it finishes on the lamest word of all. The laugh at the end obscures the next couple of lines at the screenings that I've seen.
Which word are you referring to?
"Tits." After all that, it kind of ends on an afterthought. it almost has a sweetness about it; if the word weren't forbidden, there would be nothing happening.
How many marbles did you wind of fitting in your mouth for that therapy session scene?
Seven. But I had to ask for more because I didn't want to have to pretend. And I did get a little worried about the swallowing issue. And they were sterilized. We started with five, and I found that I had to fake it. So I said, "Let's stick another couple in there."
King George VI seemed jealous of Hitler's ability to speak.
Intimidated. I mean it's like, "How do I compete with that? I've got live radio here and I'm terrified of the microphone, this guy is actually exploiting it to hypnotize the masses. And I can't even speak. Why am I even in this job?"
It appeared as though you and Geoffrey Rush were having the time of your lives.
We were. I just loved firing off of Geoffrey. He was so, so full of ideas. I mean, we were being worked very hard by Mr. Hooper, and I thank him for that because we just never went off-duty on that movie. And my family had to say goodbye to me for a couple of months. And even on the sacred Sunday, our one day off, which I think Tom Hooper wished didn't exist, Geoffrey came around to the house and we just went over everything again. We loved it; we couldn't drop it. And it was seamless once we were on the set. There are just some actors who just give it all to you for nothing. Julianne Moore has that. You know, they fire you up and you just feel, "I don't have to do anything now. Your energy is going to feed me."
Since at least Pride and Prejudice, if not before, you've been labeled a "heartthrob." Do you think the label has ever impeded your career?
I don't think it was helpful. I haven't tried to get rid of anything, though. This is an interesting thing: Somebody constructed a speculative thing about me the other day which I was told about, I haven't actually read it, but it was to do with trying to shake it off. And I realized over the years that this perception that I'm grumpy about it at all, or wish it wasn't around, or tried to shake it off -- I don't find it onerous in any way. I think it's actually rather wonderful to have done something that has actually lingered for so long. In some ways I'm quite glad it casts a long shadow. One's lucky to ever play a role in one's life that, in any time, will do that.
I'm not sure it casts a shadow. People who aren't talented get stuck with that and they can't shake it because there's nothing else there.
I don't mean a shadow in a negative way. I just mean that, you know, that it resonates still. George Falconer in A Single Man started to shake it off for me. For me. I shook off that one the day I walked off the set. I mean, age helps get that shaken off. I'm getting to a certain point where people aren't casting me on that basis. I remember when I was about 25, looking at older actors I was working with -- brilliant older actors -- thinking, I cant wait to get a few wrinkles. Look at the instrument that they are using. I had such an utterly boring face at that age. I think it needs to show some weathering just to get some texture there. So I think that's helping. I think it can invite some condescension. You know, if you take yourself a little bit too seriously, or you want to take yourself a little too seriously, it gets in the way. But in some ways it probably did me some favors and encouraged me to subvert things and make a fool of myself.
And the Fiennes brothers stopped showing up to steal away your love interest.
Yes, indeed. But actually I think it's probably one of the reasons why I was tempted to get into and do some sort of silly stuff.
Like the fight in Bridget Jones's Diary?
Like the fight in Bridget Jones! And good silly stuff. Things like Mamma Mia. You just get out, make a fool of yourself. You know, people sort of see you as this po-faced 18th- or 19th-century remote figure.
I was a little shocked to find out that you lived a year in my hometown of St. Louis.
Yeah, it was 1972 to 1973. I was in the eighth grade, my dad taught at a community college in Florissant. I went to Hazelwood West Junior High for one year. I was in the eighth grade and I did my Constitution test -- passed with flying colors. And, yeah, I had some very good friends there and people I actually still see now.
As an English actor, it's interesting that you lived in Missouri. It's a lot different from living in New York or L.A. Did the experience of living in the "heartland" help you as an actor to understand the U.S.?
Well, it certainly did because my first knowledge, my first acquaintances, with this country is the Midwest. My mother grew up in Iowa, so I grew up with quite an awareness of America. But she was very strongly connected with her parents raising her there. Basically, my mother was born in India but her father decided late-ish in life to get medical training. So he went to the states to train somewhere in Iowa, so she spent seven years growing up in that part of the world. And we visited and they visited us, so I always felt that America has always been a very big part of my life. I almost feel like I'm partly of this country, really. It's a combination of things, but the family compass points that way so much.